The Arkle Trophy and Champion Chase hero jumped with the verve that was the highlight of his two notable Cheltenham victories, flying the Railway fences and vying for the lead with Kauto Stone before the turn for home.

Kauto Stone was the only one able to stick with the 11-8 favourite when the pace quickened, but Henry de Bromhead's star got the better of the argument coming towards the second-last and produced another couple of exuberant leaps for Andrew Lynch to seal an eight-length triumph.

Lynch said: "They went a good gallop and he got into a nice rhythm. He travelled well and jumped super. He's a horse who can run over any trip and he will run his heart out, but two miles is probably his ideal trip.

"He ran on heavy ground at home and it's a lot worse there than here. I wasn't too worried about the ground."

De Bromhead added: "That was brilliant. He jumped the second down the back a bit slow and that got me a little worried, but he winged the fence six from home and started to canter when the rest were struggling.

"It was phenomenal and apart from that one mistake, he was brilliant. The plan was always to bring him here for his Christmas run and then take him back to Cheltenham to try to win the Queen Mother again.

"He had his prep race for that at Punchestown last year and I see no reason why we shouldn't go back for that again - if it's not broken, don't fix it. I wouldn't rule out going three miles again and that's maybe something we'll consider after Cheltenham, where we will stick to two miles.

"I felt a lot of pressure coming here as the hot favourite, whereas in the Queen Mother we came in under the radar."

Paul Nicholls said of Kauto Stone: "He's not that big or scopey and was flat out all the way. It would suit him running over further and we will look at the Ryanair this year before stepping him up the following season. There is nothing around to beat Sizing Europe at the moment."